September 26, 2008
See http://www.aect.org/events/program/MyAECT.asp?clientid= for the most up-to-date conference schedule for CHANGE sessions plus all the rest. Visit http://www.aect.org to register.
The CHANGE division membership meeting is Friday @ 3:30 in the Coventry Board Room. All division members and those who are INTERESTED in becoming members should make every effort to attend.
See you all in a month!
August 20, 2008
Much thanks goes out to the work of Frank Duffy who served as conference planner, the AECT members who served as reviewers, and to the many wonderful scholars who submitted proposals to the CHANGE division for this year’s AECT Conference in Orlando, FL (Nov. 4-8, 2008).
While presenters were notified a few weeks ago, we wanted to share this list of accepted proposals to whet your appetites for the conference and to assist you in planning your week in Orlando. Some of these times/locations may change as conflicts arise, and those changes will be posted here as they come up. If you notice errors in this posting, please contact Frank Duffy or Mary Herring.
One-to-One Computing can Change How and What Teachers Teach
Description: This session describes year one results of Pennsylvania’s “Classrooms for the Future” program, a high-school reform program that involves one-to-one access to laptop computers in the classroom. Results from surveys, observations, and interviews reveal that the program has significantly: reduced the time teachers spend lecturing; increased the time teachers spend with individuals and groups; increased the attention paid to “21st Century Skills;” increased the “authenticity” of assignments and student activities; and increased constructivist practices.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Barbara Rosenfeld, Brooklyn College
Length: 1 Hour Timeblock: 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Captain
Keywords: Technology Integration, Research Studies Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Kyle L. Peck, Penn State University
Copresenter(s): Robin Clausen, Penn State University
Large Scale Innovations in Dutch Secondary Education: The Voice of School Managers, Teachers, Parents and Students
Description: This research gives a voice to school managers, teachers, parents, and students on their experiences concerning three recent large scale, country-wide innovations in Dutch secondary education: the introduction of (1) Basic Secondary School Curriculum in the first few years of secondary education, (2) Second Stage in the upper years of senior secondary education, and (3) pre-vocational secondary education. Results indicated that the stakeholders experienced only minor educational benefits and major negative effects.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Sunnie Watson, Ball State University
Length: 30 Minutes (Paired Session) Timeblock: 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Event Center I
Keywords: Systemic Change, Evaluation Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Paul Kirschner, Utrecht University
Copresenter(s): Frans Prins, Utrecht University
A Case Study of Participatory School Reform in a High-Poverty District
Description: While there is a consistent call for broad-based stakeholder participation in systemic school reform projects, the costs and the uncertainties of this process have discouraged many schools from involving more than a token number of stakeholders in the reform process. This case study of a citywide attempt at involving citizens in a redesign of an urban school system shows the challenges and successes of this ambitious effort. The impact of political power, both internally and externally is described as a major challenge to such inclusive efforts.
URL: http://fs.uno.edu/bbeabout/index.htm
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Sunnie Watson, Ball State University
Length: 30 Minutes (Paired Session) Timeblock: 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Event Center I
Keywords: Systemic Change, Transformational Change Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Brian Beabout, Pennsylvania State University
New Ways to Measure Systemic Change: Map & Analyze Patterns & Structures Across Time (MAPSAT)
Description: Transforming a school district is a daunting task, likely to take many years. How do we know we are moving in the right direction? Results from standardized tests tell only part of the story. For example, if curriculum structure has substantially changed, how can we measure change in that structure? The authors have developed new methods to measure temporal and structural properties of systems, called MAPSAT. Examples of how MAPSAT can be used in evaluating systemic change will be discussed.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Jim Ellsworth, U.S. Naval War College
Length: 1 Hour Timeblock: 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Emerald
Keywords: Systemic Change, Assessment Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Ted Frick, Indiana University®
Copresenter(s): Rodney Myers, Indiana Uiversity® | Kenneth Thompson, System-Predictive Technologies | Sean York, e-College
The Future of Systemic Educational Change – Across Two Horizons
Description: This concurrent session will discuss a recent proposal for educational reform in K-12 education in China, and a proposal for transformational systemic change that was implemented last year by AECT, call the Futureminds Initiative. The session will discuss the similarities and contrast between the initiatives in the two countries in terms of historical context and current economic and cultural issues. The last third of the session will be left for discussion and questions.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Paul Kirschner, Utrecht University
Length: 30 Minutes (Paired Session) Timeblock: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Captain
Keywords: Systemic Change, Transformational Change Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Hoyet Hemphill, Western Illinois University®
Copresenter(s): Lixin Zhang, Hebei University | Leaunda Hemphill, Western Illinois University®
The Use of Virtual Workshops: A Study of Innovations in the Systemic Change Process
Description: In this presentation I discuss the results of a study of the innovative use of technology to facilitate learning within the systemic change initiative. This initial case we refer to as a virtual workshop, and it allows further understanding of the use of web based learning environments within the context of systemic change. This study serves as a formative evaluation of the use of such workshops while simultaneously constructing a model for future virtual workshop design and implementation.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Paul Kirschner, Utrecht University
Length: 30 Minutes (Paired Session) Timeblock: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Captain
Keywords: Distance Education, Systemic Change Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Claudius Rodgers, Indiana University
Variables Affecting the Performance of Leadership Teams Pursuing Systemic Change in their Educational Systems
Description: This presentation will discuss results and ongoing research about effects of different group dynamics (e.g., personality type, attendance, decision-making) affecting the performance of a Leadership Team attempting to implement systemic change in a school district. This presentation intends to provide meaningful information for educational systems that could result in powerful analytical and evaluative tools, and may become instrumental to the improvement of their own design/redesign and implementation of practices and transformation.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Brian Beabout, University of New Orleans
Length: 30 Minutes (Paired Session) Timeblock: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Event Center I
Keywords: Systemic Change, Leadership Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Daniel Pascoe, Indiana University
Copresenter(s): Sari M. Pascoe, Indiana University
Characteristics of High Capacity, Semi-Autonomous Systemic Change Teams: Leaders – Are You Prepared For This?
Description: Are your large scale innovation/change efforts staying on track? Do you understand the nature of flexible, semi-autonomous teams that mark the organization of the future? This interactive session uses research findings and new models for systemic change to help participants understand what key characteristics are necessary to lead successful, powerful system-wide change teams. Please join us.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Brian Beabout, University of New Orleans
Length: 30 Minutes (Paired Session) Timeblock: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Event Center I
Keywords: Systemic Change, Strategies Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Eugene Kowch, University of Calgary – Faculty of Ed.
Innovative Results and Products within the Instructional Technology Academic Community
Description: This session will explore innovation as a desired result in academic institutions. Innovation will be defined and reasons for having innovation within an organization will be presented. Suggestions for creating an environment for institutions, instructors, and students will be discussed. An instructor with a Ph.D. in Instructional Technology and forty years of experience as a practitioner and teacher will be accompanied by a doctoral student in this presentation.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: TBA
Length: 1 Hour Timeblock: 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Great Hall East
Keywords: Faculty Development, Instructional Design Session Type: Roundtable
Key presenter: Jessica Frumkin, WSU College of Education IT Offices
Copresenter(s): Timothy Spannaus, Wayne State University
Presidential Session
The Purpose of Education in the United States and How Systemic Change can Help Achieve that Purpose
Description: In this 60 minute presidential session, Dr. G. Thomas Houlihan will share his views on what he thinks the purpose of education should be in the U.S. and talk about how he thinks systemic change can help achieve that purpose.
Sponsor(s): Presidential Session, Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Francis Duffy, Professor of Change Leadership in Education
Length: 1 Hour Timeblock: 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Great Hall West
Keywords: Systemic Change, Transformational Change Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: G. Thomas Houlihan, invited by Francis Duffy
Conflict Management in Leadership Teams Implementing Change in Educational Systems: A Workshop
Description: This workshop will provide attendants with a theoretical framework and facilitate interactive exercises to assist the participants’ estimation of important variables of their personal profiles. Participant’s data will assist in the application of team-dynamic and conflict-management taxonomies that could help them learn, develop, and design consensus-building and/or conflict-resolution strategies in their leadership teams; strategies that could be instrumental to their team’s design, development, and implementation of development or change in their educational systems.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Beth Rajan Sockman, East Stroudsburg University
Length: 1 Hour Timeblock: 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Event Center F
Keywords: Systemic Change, Leadership Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Daniel Pascoe, Indiana University
Copresenter(s): Sari M. Pascoe, Indiana University
Integration of a Decision-Making Process and a Learning Process in a Newly Formed Leadership Team for Systemic Transformation of a School District
Description: This study sought to improve some of the process guidelines described in the Guidanace System for Transforming Education (GSTE) by using the qualitative research methodology described as formative research. This methodology asked what worked well, what did not work as well as it could have, and what could be done to improve the process. The current study examined the application of the GSTE in the Leadership Team formation stage of the transformation process.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Rod Myers, Indiana University
Length: 30 Minutes (Paired Session) Timeblock: 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Event Center G
Keywords: Transformational Change, Leadership Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Kurt Richter, Indiana University
What Not To Do in Systemic Change: Lessons from a Middle School Change Process
Description: Change is a difficult and treacherous process. It frequently generates divisiveness and resistance. However, the change process is even more difficult when it attempts to bring about fundamental changes in the culture and structure of a school. This presentation describes the process that one middle school has used to try to bring about such fundamental, systemic transformation, identifies negative consequences that arose from that process, and identifies what the literature on systemic change says about avoiding those problems.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Rod Myers, Indiana University
Length: 30 Minutes (Paired Session) Timeblock: 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Event Center G
Keywords: Systemic Change, Strategies Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Charles Reigeluth, Indiana University Bloomington, Dept of Instructional Technology
Copresenter(s): Kurt Richter, Indiana University
Factors and Components of Mindset Change: A Study of Mindset Change in a Systemic Change Initiative
Description: The systemic change efforts in a mid-western school district provided an environment for participants to interact with several concepts. These concepts included systems thinking, participatory leadership, and the learner-centered paradigm of instruction. Helping participants to integrate these concepts into their existing ways of thinking is one of the keys to transforming the education system in the district. In this study we identify the factors that influenced the mindset of participants as well as the components of their new mindset.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: TBA
Length: 1 Hour Timeblock: 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Date: 11/6/08 Location: Great Hall East
Keywords: Systemic Change, Transformational Change Session Type: Roundtable
Key presenter: Claudius Rodgers, Indiana University
Copresenter(s): Chun-Yi Lin, Indiana University
Learning Management System Features for Learner Centric Schools
Description: The purpose of this session is to; a) present the results of our analysis of the functions and features for an Information-Age LMS that we think will be ideal; and b) present the results of the information sent to us about the features of current LMSs. In addition to presenting our findings, a primary goal of this session is to seek participants’ feedback regarding our ideal features and vendor information, as well as additional ideas that we may have overlooked.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Cynthia Holubik, Texas Tech University
Length: 1 Hour Timeblock: 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Date: 11/7/08 Location: Knave
Keywords: Management, Technology Centers Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Sunnie Watson, Indiana University
Copresenter(s): Charles Reigeluth, Indiana University ® | William Watson, Purdue University ® | Pratima Dutta, Indiana University ® | Clare Chen, Indiana University ® | Nate Powell, Indiana University
High School Evaluation: Determining the Effectiveness of Small Learning Communities
Description: The purpose of this research study is to determine the effectiveness of the redesign process for a high school into small learning communities.
Sponsor(s): Division on Systemic Change Session Facilitator: Jason Ravitz, Buck Inst. for Education
Length: 1 Hour Timeblock: 2:15 PM – 3:15 PM Date: 11/7/08 Location: Coventry Board Room
Keywords: Evaluation, Research Studies Session Type: Concurrent
Key presenter: Pamela Green, Indiana University
Copresenter(s): Charles Reigeluth, Indiana University | Kurt Richter, Indiana University | Sunnie Watson, Indiana University | Chun-Yi Lin, Indiana University® | Clare Chen, Indiana University®
Systemic Change Membership Meeting
Description: Systemic Change Membership Meeting
Length: 1 Hour Timeblock: 3:30 PM-4:30:00 PM Date: 11/7/08 Location: Coventry Board Room
Keywords: Meetings, Session Type: Governance Meeting
Key presenter: Systemic Change Division
May 12, 2008
A New York Times article from March 2008 about a new charter school in New York City that proposes to pay its teachers $125,000 as a way to attract a high-caliber teaching staff and, so their theory goes, create a high-performing school. While the ideas that incentive pay and teacher quality are levers for systemic change are certainly not new, this article did raise a new question for me: Has the substantial growth of the charter movement made the business of school change more about designing new schools as opposed to improving unsatisfactory ones?
Certainly the school creation process has some significant differences from the school change process: staffing, school culture, and student-makeup take on quite different meanings depending on the case. Have those of us who study school change given enough attention to the increasingly-commmon change approach of starting a new school? In this division, we’re somewhat familiar with the idealized design processes advocated by Ackoff and Banathy, but they generally contextualized this design process within the setting of a pre-existing organization. So many of the school reformers I speak with now have simply abandoned this approach and are content to create rather than change their ideal schools. Hopefully others out there are thinking about this same issue and how it influences the study and practice of systemic change in schools.
April 19, 2008
This 1999 New york Times article discusses the Celebration School, which was a collaboration between a number of well-known educational reformers and the Disney-created town of Celebratoin, Florida. It’s a classic example of the tension between theory-based reforms (created outside of schools) and the public who has the ultimate authority to reject or accept a particular school.
Perhaps some of those invovled in this reform attempt might be invited to a panel discussion at the 2008 AECT conference in Orlando?
More information on the Celebration School can be found in the following book chapter:
Boorman, L. M., Glickman, E., & Haag, A. (2000). Creating a school culture from the ground up: The case of Celebration School. In K. A. Riley & K. S. Louis (Eds.), Leadership for change and school reform: International perpectives (pp. 185-210). New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
April 11, 2008
Since I just finished up my dissertation, I thought I’d post it here for division members who are interested. This is a phenomenological look at K12 Principals’ experiences with a decentralized change process in the post-Katrina New Orleans Public Schools. Certainly not all (probably none) of the individuals in this study were engaged in a traditional, planned systemic change process, but I think that change in this context gives us some insights into educational change that we can’t get in more centrally planned cases.
Abstract:
This study examines the perceptions of public school principals in New Orleans, Louisiana during the period of extensive structural change in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Using the theoretical frameworks of Chaos and Systems theories, iterative interviews with ten school leaders, extensive document analysis, and school-site observations were used to collect data on principals’ experiences. The following themes emerged during constant comparative analysis: 1) the omnipresence of storm recovery in principals’ lives, 2) the lingering presence of the pre-Katrina school system, 3) the emerging inequalities of the post-Katrina system, 4) schools’ new relationships with the external environment, 5) Principals plans for long-term (rather than rapid) improvement, and 6) principals’ requirements for successful long-term change. The analysis identifies the need for a minimum stability at the outset of the change process as well as the important strange attractors of inequality and low-risk relationships which must be addressed for meaningful, long-term change to occur.
Final dissertation document: http://etda.libraries.psu.edu/theses/approved/WorldWideIndex/ETD-2609/index.html (may cite)
Draft of article-length version: http://www.personal.psu.edu/brb112/katrinaprincipals_AERA.doc (please don’t cite)
March 28, 2008
Please join me in welcoming the newly elected officers of our Division:
President Elect: Ali Carr-Chellman
Candidate Statement/Bio
Communications Officer: Eugene Kowch
Candidate Statement/Bio
Board Representative: Luis Almeida
Candidate Statement/Bio
Secretary/Treasurer: Brian Beabout
February 20, 2008
A podcast produced by John Merrow’s Learning Matters group and distributed by PBS. It is a 10 minute interview with a parent in the D.C. Public Schools about issues of community feedback, stakeholder participation in reform, and the power of information:
Merrow’s podcast homepage http://www.pbs.org/merrow/podcast/index.html
mp3 of this interview(11.6 MB): http://www.pbs.org/merrow/rss/media/93.mp3
February 19, 2008
This recent chapter by British policy maker and school reformer David Hopkins gets at the role of leadership in systemic change, an area of clear importance in efforts at improving schools. I thought a brief review of this chapter might be useful for folks.
He cites three reasons for the failure of most school reforms:
He suggests three features of an educational system in which all schools are great schools:
Hopkins notes the need to strike a balance between top-down (prescriptive) and bottom-up (professional) approaches to reform. This is a good example of the Both/And thinking we have talked about a great deal in our division. The central problem leading to this false dichotomy of top-down/bottom-up reform is that while purely top-down reforms don’t work, there has been a lack of capacity at the local level to engage in bottom-up change. Hopkins cites four areas where capacity should be built: personalized learning, professionalized teaching, collaboration, and intelligent accountability.
He goes on to note that these are not merely technical problems for which known answers can be applied to local contexts, but complex problems which require learning and adaptation. Hence the need for school leaders who are learners, not technicians. He defines principals who do this as “system leaders.” They “are those headteachers who are willing to shoulder system leadership roles: who care about and work for the success of other schools as well as their own” (p.169).
More specifically, these leaders focus on increasing achievement and decreasing gaps between subgroups, they focus on improving the teaching and learning process, and they see and engage with the system on classroom, school, and external levels. While this is certainly not the description of an “average” principal in the UK (or the USA), it is a worthy bar for us to shoot for. Imagine if all of our principals could answer the questions that Hopkins lists on page 172 (from Barber, 2005):
Developing leaders with this systemic perspective should be a goal for those charged with preparing future school leaders. Hopkins’ chapter, while short on specifics for implementing such changes, provides a noble vision for guiding our efforts.
References:
Barber, M. (2005). ‘A 21st Century self-evaluation framework’, Annex 3 in ‘Journeys of Discovery: the search for success by design’, keynote speech, National Centre on Education and the Economy, Annual Conference, Florida, USA, 10 February.
Hopkins, D. (2007). Sustaining leaders for system change. In B. Davies (Ed.), Developing sustainable leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Paul Chapman Publishing.
December 21, 2007
Congratulations to Kurt Richter for successfully defending his dissertation at Indiana University! Given Kurt’s contribution to the Change division and the interest his topic might generate among our membership, it seemed appropriate to post a link to it here.
Part of the abstract:
The Guidance System for Transforming Education (GSTE) is a design theory
used to facilitate systemic transformation in public school districts. This study sought to
improve some of the process guidelines described in the GSTE by using the qualitative
research methodology described as formative research (Reigeluth & Frick, 1999). This
methodology asked what worked well, what did not work as well as it could have, and
what could be done to improve the process. The current study examined the application
of the GSTE in the middle stages of the systemic transformation process with a
Leadership Team of 20-25 stakeholders in a public school district that consists of 5,954
students in a semi-urban, Midwestern setting.
Link to full dissertation:
Thanks for sharing your work Kurt!
November 27, 2007
Pittsburgh Science and Technology School
I recently came across this plan for a new school that is slated to open in Pittsburgh for the 2009-10 school year, pending approval by their school board. This is not a systemic transformation, like many of the projects we follow, but a new school design based on a number of learning and design principles that have come up repeatedly in Division discussions: advanced coursework for all students, adjustable time to achieve content mastery, flexible scheduling, connections between school and work, and a project-based curriculum.
Samuel Franklin of the Pittburgh Public Schools Office of High School Reform was gracious enough to share this document with us and is interested in whatever feedback and/or assistance division members would like to provide (especially in the area of instructional technology). You can reach him at: sfranklin1@pghboe.net
Download here: Pittsburgh Science and Technology School Plan
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